After some years of meeting in small discussion groups and seminars the movement for workers! control is now beginning to break through into the centre of the political argument. As an example of its success we may take the item in the Daily Mail on Thursday 28th Apmil 1966. Under the heading 'Workers' Councils - A phrase from the past (Russian Revolution, British General Strike )crops up in the latest talks of nationalisation} the Mail drew together two stories which will interest all those who took part in the Week-Voice study conferences last year, They read as follows: "A sudden spurt towards nationalisation of two big industries -steel and the docks - came yesterday. In both industries, badly lagging at present, ambitious development of full-blooded workers 'pmagenent is urged and seems likely to be acted upon by the Government, Mr,Harold Wilson himself described the secret docks report at the Labour Party National Executive yesterday as ‘"splendid", It envisages "group operating committees" on which management will sit with working dockers to handle ‘manpower problems, pay and productivity, discipline, safety, training, and generally supervise the dock groups. The report hails the idea as introducing a new radical element of industrial democracy. It is the work of a team led by Mr. Ian Mikardo, MP, and trade. unionists Mr.Jack Jones and Mr. William Simpson. In steel, workers' councils to run the industry have been urged on the Power Minister and on the Labour Party Executive, Craftsmen led by party vice-chairman Mr.John Boyd declare: "We no longer:live in the conditions or the atmosphere of the pre-war years, when we were always on the defensive, always ignored and forced to be rigidly sectional. We are concerned with the economy as a whole and regard it as vital to have an effective influence in the fixing of prices, the moulding of production and investment policies, ad the shaping of labour policies," Steel Unions Want Their Men on the Board. A demand for the creation of workers' councils in the nation= alised stcel industry has been laid before the new Power Minister, Mr.Richard Marsh, by the stecl craftsmen's unions. The 30-page recommendations have also gone to the Labour Party netional executive and to leaders of unions likely to be involved. The 12 unions include engineers, clectricians, bricklayers, boilermakers, and foundrymene The document produced by the steel craftsmen calls for fullblooded workers' representation at all levels in the State-' run industry. This covers national board level, group level, and actual plant level involved in the day-to-day administration of the individual mills. The recommendations, produced by the national craftsmen's co-ordinating committee under the chairmanship of Mr.John Boyd, break completely new ground.
The Campcign for Workers Control Gathers Momentum continued,
Some of the findings, if accepted, will chill the blood at management=-level in the paternalistic steel industry. Until now, in other state-owned industries, trade union or worker represgtation has taken two courses. Either retired -union lesders took full-time posts, or senior union officials have taken part-time posts on nationalised boards. The crafts men in steel protest in their document that this makes the worst of both worlds, The retired men have no longer any link with their mombers cond the part-timers tended to become "stooges" of the wmployers. For State stcel they demand:-
1. An Economic Development Council for the whole industry to supervise the whole industry on which trade unions would be represented.
2. At national board level, a chairman‘and 12 full-time members without other private directorships, answerable to the Power Minister, The vice-chairman and four members would be appointed by the Minister but selectcd from a psnel of names submitted and xngreed by the unions. The board would be responsible for running the whole industry, its production, by-products, exports, rescorch end other industry-wide activities.
3. .t group level,half of the workers' councils should be clected directly by the unions in relation to their strength in the combine or group. The other half would be elected from the shop, mill, or office committee. "The workers! council would have the power to receive reports on all policies," says the document, "and to ask for detailed costings of all depart-= ments." Even more drastic is the demand that the council should heve the right to approve — or disapprove — the appointment of the group's chairman or managing director to the national board.
4A, 2t plant =: level % local committee would be appointcd composed of six departmental monagers or foremen and six workers elected by the group workers' council.
5. At the individual shop, mill, or office level, workers' democracy would come down to fine details -a@ secret ballot organised by the unions would select the members, white collar as well as manual workers. "Appointment of shop mcnagers, deployment of lebour,promotion, hiring, even disciplinary matters would be subject to approval b:r these committecs." The delegates uncnimously approved a list of industries for state takeover - engineering, shipbuilding, the aircraft industries, stecl and road haulage. Labour's Docks Plan aired and put awa ‘enins Lebour's blueprint for the nationalisation of the docks was given its first private airing cnd approved yesterday at the Lebour Party Exccutive mecting. It was then quickly locked up for fear that it could open up a major split between the
/continucd over
The Campaign for Workers' Control Gathers Momentum = continucd nected ond! party executive of the way to modernise the
The report shows that while the Labour P i i
r that arty is firml commst¥os to‘nationalisation as the answer + gosrices Fisted al ato eek gp eerneont is going on with its plans to
nt e Devlin Report, which said & ionali j was outside its brief, ‘ ee eeageeeres executive members took the viow that publication
he docks report wes unnecessary because its main recommend~ thaketinc ae an so arty manifesto and the Queen's Speech, , the Ss no doubt now that the future of the docks is a front-line political issue, Soe ee Mr,tan Mikerdo, MP, the Left-wing chairman of the subcommittee which drew up the report, apparently expressed no Opinion and supported 2 move to send the document to the Home Policy Committee end the Publicity Committee for their decision whether to publish, Had Mr.Gunter, Minister of Labour, been present at the meeting, it is pretty certain that he would have opposed publication, It is said that he and Mr.Callaghan are not enchanted with outright nationalisation, but on the other side of the Cabinet there_is the unusual alliance of Mr. Fronk Cousins and Mr.George Brown favouring all-out public ownership to "cure the chaos" ‘in dockland. The report calls for a new State-backed Nation’1 Ports Authority which would be the sole operator of cargo handling and the sole employer of labour, This must be an embarrassment for Mr.Gunter, for he is about to publish a Bill calling for the licensing of a reduced number of private port employers. The argument that one is a short-term and the other a longrange plan has alrceadybeen killed by the dockland militants. The Mikardo report says plainly that the National Ports Authority and publicly~owned regional port authorities should be the sole supplier. of dock lebour whenever it is required by private wharfingers, They should also be the sole operators of all port services, including lightcrage, pilobage, conserv= ancy, and navigation control. The two. new authorities would be invested with power to take over the assets of all the existing port authorities like the Port of London uthority, the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, the Manchester Ship Canal, and the Clyde Navigation Trust, A complete break with past nationalisation boards is called for with some members being working dockers, elected by the ronk and file. Membership of the group committees in each port would range from dockers to dock managers. They would accept personal responsibility for the éfficient use of manpower and equipment, pay and productivity outside of national agreements, discipline, sxfcty, and welfore. The new Nationel Ports Authority will be responsible, says the Labour Executive, for? pionning ond investment policy. It would select the ports = >> development ond provide the industry with research and . statistical data,
The Campaign for Workers! Control Gathers Nomentum = continued
al isti Netional A +c is almost the same ground as the existing Navi of Seanad nilready covers, Mrs ,Barbare Castle, Minister <3 Transport, will be asked to spell out in detail the Goveramen s actual plans when she mects Lord Rochdale, the NPC chairman, today.
j ini Transport will be Under the Mikardo plan, the Ministry of +ransp : ob peneitic through Parliament for the work of the local “port authorities. :
sport is certain to alarm the port employers, who have | aoe hed 2 mecting with Mr.Gunter at which it wos made plain that the Government was not thinking in terms of national= isation, but only the more limited Devlin proposals. Mr. Gunter's main aim is to introduce « scheme for the reguler d employment of all dockers, instcad of the present daily hiring system, and to reduce the number of employerse Ageinst this union leaders ore saying that Labour's election manifesto meant thot all private employers would eventually be eliminated from port operations. In their anxiety to paper over the divisions in Labour's top ranks, no statement was issued efter the executive mecting end no Press confercnce was held. Nobody would admit thet the 42—poge Mikardo Report was even tabled." The ersftsmen? demands for steel will be recognised by readers of The Week and The Voice as the programme elaborated by the Sheffield seminars on the structure of a demoeratic steel bill. The success of those discussions in helping to form the policies of a key section of the trade union movement will encourage an even more substantial attendance at the Seminar arranged by. the Centre for Socialist Education, on Industrial Democracy, for June 25th-26th. If we may draw encouragement from these news items, there have appeared others which show that there is a very great need for practical work on the issue, The following report from The Times makes the point most sharply. "At the resumed meeting of the national committee of the Amalgamated Engincering union, by Mr.J.Boyd, a member of the executive, said: "sometimes we spend too much time sloganizing without thinking out the problems." His comments were supported by Sir William Carron, the president. Referring to steel nationalisation, Mr.Boyd said district committees and. shop stewards had been asked for their views on how workers! partucipation in management could be put into effect. "The ideas we got could heve been put in a thimble, ond you couldstill have got your middle finger in it," he said." i strong contingent of engineers can be expexted to attend the Nottingham conference, and for this reason we may hope that Mrs Boyd will soon be inundated with practical proposals on this — vital matter.
end May 1966
Dear Sir and Brother,
No question is of greater importance to the Labour . Movement today than that of Industrial democracy, Indeed it could be said that the whole future of British Trade unionism is now bound up with the question of how workers' trade union rights can be extended, and how the Labour Movement can encroach upon the so=called prerogatives of management in order to move towards a real control of the economy. Issues like the Incomes Policy raise in a very clear way the whole problem of how trade union powers can be defended and extended, and the idea of workers' control takes on a new and crucial importance, The election of a Labour Governnent with a working majority makes it necessary for trade unionists to begin to spell out in detail the sort of teforms they wish to secure in industrial government, and to agree upon practical programmes for action.
Already in the past two years there has been a great deal of thought and work put into the movement for workers’ control, Three important conferences, organised by the Voice of the Unions, together with other socialist newspapers Like ribune an he Week, served to bring together active trade unionists, leaders of important unions‘included, and économists and sociologists from the universities, to prepare highly important blueprints for a democratic Steel Nationalisation Act, studies on workers' control in the Docks, and proposals for a number of other important industrics as well. The enclosed papers describe some of the results of this work.
In order to co-ordinate past researches and to develop an extended campaign on thgse matters, our organisation has been asked to convene the Fourth Seminar on Industrial Democracy. It will meet in Nottingham on June 25th and 26th 1966. Among the trade union leaders who have been invited to speak or submit papers are Jack Jones of the T&GWU, Ernie Roberts of the AEUJ, Walter Kendall of USDAW and Lawrence Daly of the NUM. A number of other leading trade unionists will also be taking part. From the academic world Michael Barratt~-Brown, Anthony Topham, Professor W.Wedderburn and a number of other authorities have becn invited. Richard Clements of Tribune, Alan Rooney of Labour's Northern Voice, and speakers from other socialist newspapers and magazines have been invited.
The seminar will consist of a few general sessions in which short public lectures will be given, and a large number of small study groups which will examine particular problems, Already arrangements have been made to convene study groups on workers' control in Docks,. Mines, Stecl, Public Services, and the Engineering Industry. ‘Other groups will consider the problem of Company Law reform, Co-operative Democracy, the In@mas Policy and Trade Union Rights. If there is any desire for other groups to be established, they can be arranged with the Conference Organisers
‘We think your organisation will be interested in this work, and would welcome your participation. If you wish to send delegates, please return the form to the address below. The conference fee is five shillings, which is levied on ‘each delogate in order to mcet administrative costs, The fee includes the cost of papers circulated for discussion at the “conference, which will be sent only to registered delegates.
4 linited amount of free hospitality can be offered in the Nottingham areca-for the duration of the canference, Local socialists and co-operators are willing to accomodate a nunher of delegntcs, Since the. supply will be much smaller thon. the demand, however, it is advisable to apply. early.
yours fraternally,
Ken Coates,
The following persons, Names Addresses | .
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